The Third Reich was the 12-year period (1933–1945) during which the Nazi Party held absolute power in Germany, defined by the messianic figure of Adolf Hitler. Beginning with Hitler's election as German chancellor in January 1933, it instigated the complete militarization of German society; the imposition of anti-Semitic legislation; mass murder of Jews, communists, gypsies, homosexuals, and Slavs; and the conquest of foreign territories for German "living space," leading to the most destructive human conflict ever known. Richard Overy charts the rise and fall of Nazi power in a month-by-month narrative of the period, with extensive quotations, accompanied by captioned images of portraits, maps, posters, seals, documents, and other artifacts.